Apparatus for playing du plicate whist



(No Model.)

. v 5 (1M; PAINE.

APPARATUS r011 PLAYING DUPLICATE WHIST. No. 535,920. r Patented Mar. 19, 1895.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CASSIUS M. PAINE, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

APPARATUS FOR PLAYING DUPLICATE WHIST.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 535,920, dated March 19, 1895.

Application filed January 12, 1895. Serial No. 534,650. (No model To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OAssIUs M. PAINE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Apparatus for Playing the Game of Duplicate Whist; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the amusement to which it appertains to use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of designation thereupon marked, which form a part of this specification.

The outfit for playing duplicate whist by my method might profitably consist of, first, decks of ordinary playing cards-as many decks as will make a game of moderate length of time, provided the number is a multiple of four; second, frames to be hereinafter described-as many in number as there are decks of playing cards, and consecutively numbered on the reverse side as hereinafter pointed out; third, thirteen chips or counters, such as arein familiar use at card tables, and, fourth, a score sheet.

As the frames above mentioned are the necessary part of this invention, one of them, as a sample of all, needs particular description. To assist in such description, a drawing with three figures is presented.

Figure 1 is a plan view, showing one packet of cards in position. Fig. 2 is a side elevation in section on line 2--2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an inverted plan view of the center of the frame, showing its number. In this case the frame happens to be No. 2.

The frame, then, consists of a continuous wire skeleton (Fig. 1), the wire being so convoluted as to afford legs (Figs. 1 and 2, e, e, e, e) which form the rests of the frame, and four projecting arms (Fig. 1, A, B, O, D) whose minuter description and use follow hereinafter. The said wire is so focused in the center (Fig. 1, F) of the frame as to afford space for such indicating and numbering devices as are needful. These are mentioned below.

Referring now to the projecting arms: three of these arms in their coloring or japanning or gilding are to be alike. The fourth arm (as forinstance arm 0, Fig. 1) by being of adifferent color or by being unjapanned or by being not gilded, is thus to be easily distinguishable from the other three. The wire at the extremityof each of the four arms is so bent as to form a shelf (A, B, C, D, Fig. 1) into and along which a packet of thirteen playing cards may be thrust until their further progress is arrested by coming up against the legs before mentioned, such legs acting as stops. In Fig. 1 at arm D a packet of cards is in position. The twisting of the wire to form this shelf may be observed by referring to arm A, Fig. 1. The wire is bent at a, then drops to a lower plane, and is then bent down and looped back on the same lower plane around A. The exact shape of these loopings is immaterial, and may be more oval or circularor oblong as fancy dictates. The existence of the upper and lower planes is more clearly shown in the section plan (Fig. 2), in which at arm D the packet of cards is shown in position and arm B is vacant. The packet, being thus placed in the arm, is held in position by the said convolutions of the wire, so made as to spring down lightly upon the top of the packet.

At the focus or center F (Fig. 1) of the frame, a fixed designator (here an arrow) suggests points of the compass. Under the arrow, so as to be invisible without overturning the frame, a number is placed (see Fig. 3 at the center), each frame of the series used in the game having a different consecutive number, beginning with No. 1.

In playing what is ordinarily known as the original hands, the frames might well be so placed upon the card table as that the'designator will point toward the north. Thus placed, the arm of the frame which, as hereinabove stated, differs in appearance from the other three and which hereinafter will be called the unique arm, will in a series of twenty frames be situate as follows: In frames numbered (on the under side) 1, 5, 9, 13 and 17, the said arm will lie to the north; in frames numbered 2, 6, 10, II and 18, the said arm will lie to the east; in frames numbered 3, 7, 11, 15 and 19, thesaid arm will lie to the south, and in frames numbered 4:, 8, 12, 16 and 20 the said arm will lie to the West.

The game of duplicate whist is now so universally played that its methods need not here be pointed out in great detail. When the four players are seated as partners at the table, a frame, which may be selected at random, is placed in the center so that the designator points to the north. The dealer is the person facing the unique arm, and the leader will be the person next to him in whist order. The cards of each player are played immediately in front of him. The cards of each trick are turned face downward when the trick is completed, and the partners taking each trick appropriate to themselves a chip from the stock of thirteen counters or chips above mentionedlying conveniently upon the table. When the hand is finished, the fifty-two cards of the deck lie in four packets before each player, faced downward. Thereupon each player places his own packet in the shelf of the projecting arm nearest him, and the frame thus furnished with its four packets is laid aside. Like play proceeds as to the other packs and other frames intended to be used, so that when the original play ends each of the twenty (more or less) frames is furnished with its four packets of cards at rest in the four projecting arms, each packet being the separate thirteen cards which each player has played in each hand. All the frames then lie by themselves in a pile. At the end of each hand the score card is used, and in the vertical column headed Original play, in the line corresponding in number with the number found upon the reverse of the frame is entered the number of tricks which each side took. The card which was the trump in each hand must of course be preserved. This may be done either by facing that card differently from its fellows or by writing the suit and size of the trump card upon a separate card and slipping it in the hand Where the trump card lies, or by prior agreement that a certain suit shall be trump for the entire game.

The duplicate play is thus managed-it being premised that the players maintain the same position at the table which they occupied in the original play. Any one of the cardsupplied frames is selected from the pile and placed upon the table with the designator pointing, not to the north, but to the east, or if preferred, indiiferently to the east or west. By this maneuver the cards which the north and south players used in the original play are shifted one-quarter of a circle around the table and fall to their opponents; and the cards which the east and west players used in the original play are shifted one-quarter of a circle around the table and fall to their opponents. There is of course no dealer on the duplicate play, but the person corresponding to the dealer is the one sitting opposite the unique arm, and the leader is the opponent sitting next to him in whist order. During the duplicate play, as there is no longer any need of preserving the integrity of the several players packets, the frames are thrown aside after each player has removed from the frame in front of him the packet therein con tained. Such a removal takes place of course hand by hand as each hand is ended. The cards are then played into the middle of the table and bunched in tricks as in ordinary whist. On the duplicate play the counters or chips are dispensed with and the tricks are counted. The number of tricks made by each side is entered on the score card under the vertical column headed Duplicate play.

Care should be taken in denuding the frames of their packets not to examine the number on the reverse of the frame until the hand has been played through. Any device should be avoided which might assista player in remembering any cards which had fallen, or unusual play made, in the original hands.

When all the frames have been played through, a footing of the scores in the score card will indicate the winner, it being now evident that luck has been eliminated, for each team of two players hasplayed the same cards which their adversaries had previously played.

What I desire to claim and to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A wire skeleton frame for playing the game of duplicate whist, provided by bendings of the wire with legs for rests and for stops, and with four arms so arranged at their extremities as to form by bendings of the wire on two levels a shelf into which the separate hands of the original play of duplicate whist are to be thrust and in which they are to be held in place by the slight spring of the loops of the two planes, so that the cards will be segregated by themselves for the duplicate play; one of said arms to be different in superficial appearance from the other three, so as to indicate, by such difference, the dealing and leading hands, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. A wire skeleton frame for the game of duplicate whist, provided by bendings of the wire with legs for rests and for stops, and with four arms so arranged at their extremities as to form by bendings of the wire on two levels a shelf into which the separate hands of the original play of duplicate whist are to be thrust and in which they are to be held in place by a slight spring of the loops of the two planes, so that the cards will be segregated by themselves for the duplicate play; one of said arms to be different in superficial appearance from the other three, so as to indicate, by such difference, the dealing and leading hands; together with a designator showing the correct position of the frame for duplicate play of the cards in said frame with relation to the original play of the same cards in said frame, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

3. Aseries of wire skeleton frames equipped with numerals or letters upon the reverse side, to distinguish the frames in consecution, each frame being likewise furnished, by bendings of the wire, with legs for rests and for stops,

and with four arms so arranged at their extremities as to form by bendings of the wire ing hands; together with a designator showing the correct position of the frame for duplicate play of the cards in said frame with relation to the original play of the same cards in said frame, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

CASSIUS M. PAINE.

Witnesses:

O. S. CARTER, C. E. ESTABROOK. 

